Montreal-Area Home Prices Have Exploded, A Report Shows
Bad news for first-time buyers: Montreal-area home prices are through the roof.
The median price for single-family homes in Montreal soared 28% from February last year to $460,000, "$100,000 more than just 12 months ago," according to a report from the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers.
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Where are sales decreasing in the Montreal area?
Prices rose despite a sales slump, says the report.
Contracts were signed for 5,106 properties, representing the slowest February since 2015 and a 3% decrease over the 5,290 sold in February 2020.
Though the Island of Montreal did well, experiencing a 6% increase in sales thanks to a strong condo market, according to the report, there were huge decreases in the suburbs, such as Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, which saw a 32 percent drop in the same one-year period.
Other slowing property markets included Laval (a 14% drop), Vaudreuil-Soulanges (10%), the South Shore (8%) and the North Shore (3%).
Why is this happening?
Charles Brant, director of market analysis at the QPAREB, blamed "skyrocketing" prices and scarcer listings in the single-family home market, which reported a 14% drop in sales.
"Condominium sales compensated for the decrease in single-family home sales in February," he said in a statement.
"The drop in inventory of properties for sale and the skyrocketing prices of single-family homes partly explain the increase in condominium and plex transactions."
The median price for condominiums was $340,000, a 24% increase from February 2020, while plexes posted a smaller increase of 9% to $650,000.
"With market conditions still very much to the advantage of sellers, median prices continue to accelerate dramatically against a backdrop of overbidding," reads the report.
